Ashcroft Delay Set In Motion

WASHINGTON — A senior Democratic senator warned Tuesday that he intends to delay for at least a week a scheduled Senate committee vote on confirmation of John Ashcroft as attorney general.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to wait until Ashcroft had answered written follow-up questions and provided other documents Democratic senators have requested.

Ashcroft's nomination has provoked the fiercest controversy of President Bush's Cabinet choices. Liberal groups have mounted a campaign to stop his confirmation because of the former Republican senator's conservative record on a range of cultural issues. He opposes abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and gun control.

After four days of hearings last week, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, had planned to press ahead with a committee vote today, clearing the way for Senate consideration of the nomination. A spokeswoman said Hatch planned to proceed with the committee meeting and "is hoping we can have a vote."

But Leahy served notice that he would invoke a procedural rule that allows any senator on the Judiciary panel to delay a committee vote on a confirmation for one week. "The record is far from complete," said Leahy spokesman David Carle.

Ashcroft pledged during the hearings to set aside his personal views and enforce "settled laws" as attorney general, including a promise not to seek to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to an abortion.

By a Monday deadline, senators on the committee had submitted more than 350 written follow-up questions, mostly coming from Democrats. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., suggested the extensive questions were at least partly intended to create a detailed record of promises to hold over Ashcroft.

"When you have a nominee that has basically said he can set aside views he has held for a long time, it is natural that we have fairly specific questions," Durbin said. "That will create a confirmation record for the future."

Although Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has said he might try to stop Ashcroft's nomination with a filibuster, Senate Republican leaders remain confident the nominee will be confirmed.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he expects Ashcroft will receive the support of all the Republicans in the chamber, which is split 50-50 between the major political parties. Ashcroft also has received public backing from at least four Democratic senators: Zell Miller of Georgia, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

On Tuesday, People for the American Way, which is leading a coalition of liberal groups opposed to the nomination, delivered to the Senate petitions it said bore signatures from 150,000 people, gathered through an anti-Ashcroft Web site it has established.

Conservative groups organizing in support of the nomination claimed to have gathered 600,000 letters from the public backing Ashcroft. They said they would deliver the letters to the Senate later in the week.